I've noticed a lot of lefty posters have chosen Rugers as their base rifles. Just wondering why the Ruger over Rem, or CZ, Tikka, etc... I don't mention Win 70 because I've never seen one in lefty. I know they are out there but I never came across one.

I believe there are several good reasons why people tend toward Rugers:

1. Controlled feed, Mauser-type action.
2. Reasonable price.
3. Has good lines; looks like a real rifle.
4. Shoots pretty good for a moderately priced, out-of-the-box rifle. My left hand .300 Win Mag shoots 1 MOA groups with tailored handloads, and 1.5 MOA groups with factory ammo.

quote:

Originally posted by BISCUT:
I've noticed a lot of lefty posters have chosen Rugers as their base rifles. Just wondering why the Ruger over Rem, or CZ, Tikka, etc... I don't mention Win 70 because I've never seen one in lefty. I know they are out there but I never came across one.

Rugers are very available and they are CRF for the DG crowd. Here's a lefty Win 70 but they haven't been any made since 2004 or so.

Variety is the only reply I can think of. I have Remingtons already. I have a commercial mauser in .458 on the way and am wondering what to do with the .375 African I have lost interest in.

We used to only own Remingtons untill we started to hunt Kodiak Island and other areas of Alaska where it is cold, raining, snowing and freezing.
Pretty much every morning one of us would wake up and have to pour Heet (alcohol) inside the action to melt ice that formed on the trigger. The way the trigger is designed on the 700 there is no way for water to escape easily and I only made it worse by adjusting them to get a good release with no creep or over travel. After seeing the guys in camps who owned Rugers or Win 70's never had the same problems I sold every Remmie we had and converted over. Well, all except one, a 300 RUM I picked up for a song.

I prefer the trigger style on the Classic style Win 70 over any other rifle. Its simply bullet proof in the field.

An iced up trigger would certainly bother me! I have a 338RUM (REM action) with a twinkle toward an Alaskan hunt!! I figured with a McMillian and SS rifle my bases were covered. Now you got me questioning!!!

I think alot may depend on how light and crisp you have the trigger adjusted.

Weather conditions for the freeze ups were snow or rain with temperatures around 30F or colder. Granted we would be out in the field all day long soaking the rifle and then temperatures would drop below freezing at night and we were in tents. But still, I always wondered what if we ran into that brownie while we were boning out a deer.
Just couldnt chance it so I sold off over a dozen Remingtons and converted to Win 70's mostly (and MRC's) and one nice Ruger. Since Winchester changed there trigger design I have no desire to buy one even though they do not offer any left handed versions yet. But Ruger has to be the best bang for the buck out there now.

Smowwolfe:

I keep my hunting rifles at 3.5lbs.